The Model for Collaboration with the Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT)

The Mission

The stated mission of the Center for Learning and Teaching is as follows:

The mission of the Center for Learning and Teaching is to provide the Oklahoma City Community College faculty - fulltime and part-time, new and experienced - opportunities for growth and development in their subject knowledge, teaching skills and professional decorum. By encouraging excellence in the faculty, the college promotes excellence in the students. Said another way, the mission is excellence on both sides of the podium.

Goals

The following goals have been identified to accomplish this mission:

• to sponsor programs, seminars and workshops aimed at enhancing teaching effectiveness, fostering professional growth, promoting dialogue among the disciplines and stimulating intellectual discourse and investigation;
• to encourage all members of the 'faculty (full-time and part-time) to take advantage of opportunities for pedagogical, scholarly and personal development;
• to provide facilities and additional resources to support: collegial interaction, learning about alternate instructional strategies and increasing technology skills to enhance teaching;
• to support efforts to implement systematic, continual Student Learning Outcomes Assessment; and to provide instruction and application of Competency Based Education;
• to work collaboratively with employees in all areas of the College to create a positive environment for learning.

The role that the OPD will play in learning opportunities for faculty is as follows:

The Director of the OPD will continue to serve as an ad hoc member of the Faculty Professional Development committee in order to be proactive in helping the Director of the CLT meet the needs of the faculty

The OPD will continue to work in partnership with the CLT in the metamorphosis of the Professional Development concept to embrace the cooperative/collaborative learning model being brought to the OCCC campus through the Achieve the Dream training initiative. The Director of the OPD will work closely with the Director of the CLT in making arrangements for a summer institute on Collaborative/Cooperative Learning being considered for May 2009. The OPD will also offer support personnel to help on this project.

The Director of the OPD, the Director of the CLT and the lead Instructional Designer will attend this summer institute in order to collaborate on ways to continue the learning opportunities for faculty and staff in support of the campus wide paradigm shift in the addressing of students' learning styles and instructional expectations.

After the summer institute, the staff of the OPD will be available to augment and supplement the learning of the faculty and staff in knowledge enhancement opportunities such as:

• Train the trainer sessions
• Technology training, i.e. outlook, ANGEL, Access, Excel, and others as needed and/or identified
• Experiential classroom learning facilitation skills
• Resources for classroom activities
• Assessment tools and testing measures for collaborative learning student experiences

The Coordinator of Technology Training in the OPD will be proactive in working with divisions, departments and specific disciplines to meet specialized technology training needs for faculty.

Final comments:

This is an exciting time to be a part of The Way Forward at OCCC. An administration that has a clear vision for organization growth and a workforce committed to helping our students reach their highest goals and achieve the dream of a profession based education is the valued asset of OCCC. The opportunities for personal and professional growth for the employees at OCCC are indefinable. The staff of the Office of Professional is eager to be involved in the evolution.